Summer Exploits
by anni
Summary: Follows the part of the gang left in PP last summer. A lot of group interaction mixed in with the J/H stuff
1. Default Chapter

**Title:  **Summer Exploits

**Author:  **Anni

**Email:  **asleeper@email.arizona.edu

**Rating:  **PG-13 mostly, but there will be some chapters of higher ratings due to sexual situations.

**Summary:  **This'll be a series of maybe 11 to 13 standalones following the gang and J/H during that summer between seasons 4 and 5.  It'll mostly be told from Jackie's third person POV (if that makes any sense), except for the chapters that aren't.  Those'll be from other people's POV.  Yeah.

**Disclaimers:  **Topher Grace is yummy, but I don't own him.  Or anything else involving That 70s Show.  Please don't sue me.

**Feedback:  **I'll forever think you're pretty if you feedback.

**Distribution:  **Please let me know.

**Notes:**  I started this story back in February, but the disk that it was saved on was stolen, so the first four chapters will be rewrites.  I've been majorly blocked on my writing for quite some time, so I'm just using this as a fun thing to get myself back into the flow.  It's not actually betaed, but I did get a nice thumbs up from the ever talented Tania (tanner).  She's nice.  It's supposed to be mostly humor, but I haven't written humor in awhile, so I don't know if it's funny.  And I've probably babbled enough, so here's chapter one which is pretty much just a set up chapter for the rest of the story.

**One:  Cleaning Up….**

Jackie flopped unceremoniously back onto the soft pink comforter that covered her bed.  Her feet were aching in the tacky high-heeled sandals that she was forced to wear for her job.  It was only a week into the summer and already she was sick of the eight hour shifts she had agreed to work.  She had thought that with the extra free time that came with summer, she could work more hours, and therefore, have more money to spend on her and Michael.

Michael.

All of her summer plans had been wrapped around him, around the things that they would do together.  Apparently, and this was news to her, her plans were subject to change by other people because Michael had wiped them all away without so much as looking back.

She groaned deep in her throat, willing the soreness out of her feet as she kicked her shoes off, not bothering to watch where they landed.  Her eyes fluttered shut, and for just a moment, she let herself bask in the anger that filled her stomach every time she thought about him.

How could he have done this to her?  After telling her that he loved her, after proposing to her and promising to spend the rest of his life with her, how could he just leave?  There was no good-bye, there was no note, there was no thought of how much this would hurt piled on top of all of the rest of the hurt their relationship had given her over the last six years.

He wasn't worth this.  He wasn't worth spending all of her time thinking about what she did wrong and what she could have done to make him stay and to make him love her.  If she wasn't worth so much as fricking good-bye, then he definitely wasn't worth wasting away her summer, boiling under this anger.

So, why couldn't she move past it?

She had had no problem hating him after their last break-up.  It had hurt, especially when he had started dating Laurie, but in the end, it hadn't taken her all that long to move past him and onto something new.  

So, why was she holding on so much now?

Pushing herself up into a sitting position, she told herself that it had only been a week.  You didn't get over the love of your life in just one week.  It took time.  There were steps, and all sorts of grieving and acceptance you had to get through.  It was a process, not just a quick fix.

Jackie leaned across the bed to the nightstand, picking up the large picture frame that sat there.  It was a picture of them at the Snow Prom, just before she had learned that she had not won the title that she so much deserved.  A flash of anger shot across her expression as she remembered that that was also just before he and stupid Steven had drawn her that horrible unibrow.

Pretty girls shouldn't ever have to deal with humiliation like that.  But it seemed like all her relationship with Michael ever brought her in the end was humiliation.

No.  Screw that.  Screw the process.  She wanted a quick fix.  She wanted this whole grieving thing to be over so that she could get on with her life just like he had.

Jackie tossed the picture down on to the bedspread.  She propped her head up on her hands as her eyes scanned over the expanse of her neatly kept room, searching for something that she could do to bring about the quick fix that she so desperately wanted.

Her eyes stopped at the large bulletin board that hung over her chest of drawers and all of the photos that were pinned into the cork.  Her gaze switched to the array of magazine pinups that surrounded the board, and the cutout of Michael's underwear shoot that he had taped up.  From there, she looked down at the surface of the chest of drawers and found the Cosmo that was supposed to have solved all of their problems in the first place.

And then it hit her.  She couldn't get over Michael because she was surrounded by him.  He was everywhere that she looked.

Panic hit her like an anvil and the need to get him out of the sanctuary that was her bedroom became over whelming.  

She sprang up from her bed, the soreness in her feet momentarily pushed away, and raced toward the closet.  After a moment of digging through the recesses of clothes and shoes, she found it:  her special Michael box.  It was a tradition.  After each break-up, she had taken out this same shoe box, wrapped up in pretty pink flowered wrapping paper, and stuffed it full of all of her Michael things.  It helped before, and it would help now.

Heading over to that bulletin board, she pulled the taks free, dumping them into the trash can.  Each picture came down and was tossed carelessly into the box.  Across the expanse of her chest of drawers were other tiny gifts that he had given her over the years:  the rubber chicken for their first anniversary, a chatter mouth from the fair, a pair of disguise glasses, a yo-yo, a cheap trinket box full of super balls, and then, a plastic bag full of tiny, green army men.

"Moron."  

Opening her jewelry box, she pulled out the earrings.  It had been his Valentine's gift to her, and at the time, she had seen it as the surest sign that they would be together forever.  He was maturing; he was putting her needs and wants before his own.  They had talked about someday having kids together.  She remembered being so happy that day.

Placing the lid tightly on the box, Jackie backed up until she felt the edge of the bed pressing against her calves.  She dropped heavily down onto the mattress and glared.

All that she new of love stuffed into a prettily wrapped shoe box.

The knot in the pit of her stomach wasn't going away.  She'd been here before, heartbroken and lonely.  She had stuffed all of those things in her special Michael box before, and she had told herself each of those times that she would never let him do this to her again.  Yet, here she was, and he had done it to her again.

As much as she wanted to believe that putting all of his stupid little gifts into a stupid little box would make all of that pain go away, she knew that it wouldn't work.  It hadn't worked before, and it wouldn't work now, but she knew that no matter what, she didn't want to be back here again.  She didn't deserve to feel this way again.

Her eyes began to water as she looked around the room and a flood of memories washed over her.  This was the room that she had first given herself to him in.  There was the Bowie dancing, preparing for the Miss Dairy Pageant, the sleepover where he had been dreaming of their wedding.

There were so many good memories that pulled at her heart and had her chest constricting in pain.

But then, there were also the not so good times.  This was the room she had cried herself to sleep in every night after she found out that he had cheated on her with that skank, Laurie, and this was the room that he had told her that they weren't right for other in.  This was the room where she had learned that he had abandoned their love once again.

Jackie shook her head and forced herself to not give into the tears.  No, she wasn't going to be back in this place again.  This time it was final, and it was over, and that meant getting rid of everything that was Michael.

Standing up, she unpinned the cap from her hair and tossed it onto the desk.  That job would be the first thing to go.  Since Michael was gone, that meant that she was back in Daddy's good graces, and that meant the return of the dearly missed checkbook.  

She reached back to unzip the dress, and then shimmied out of it, tossing it carelessly over the back of her desk chair.  Going over to the chest of drawers, she pulled out her newest pair of Jordache jeans and put them on.  It had taken her three paychecks to be able to afford this necessity of life.  Well, there would be no more of that.  She went over to her closet and picked out her favorite rainbow shirt, and set about to work.

First, she went over to her picture wall and ripped down that stupid underwear ad that had started all of their problems in the first place.  She crumbled the paper in her hand and tossed it on the floor in the center of the room.  Next came the school folder that she had written their names all over, followed by that stupid Cosmo.

Going over to her bed, she picked up that overstuffed teddy bear he had bought her that time she had gotten sick from the reservoir.  She rolled her eyes at the memory of how he'd run screaming from the room.  How could she have ever thought that he would be mature enough to be in a relationship with her?

Jackie surveyed her room.  Anything and everything that held any special attachment had to go because she was finished with this.  She was finished with hanging on to Michael when he apparently didn't want her to be.

The pile in the center of her floor was growing larger so she left her room, bounding down the stairs and through the foyer to get to the kitchen.  For the first time, she wished that she paid a little bit more attention to the way the house was run so that she would a have a better idea of where the trash bags were.  After a moment of shuffling through various cabinets and drawers, she found what she was looking for.  Pulling three large bags free, she headed back to her room.

Once she reached her room again, she tossed two of the bags onto her bed and, with the third, she took on her closet.  The shirts that he had liked, the skirts that showed off just a little bit more leg for him, the dresses that he had used her own money to buy; they were all stuffed away in the bag.  It hurt to part with some of the articles as she knew that half of the high school girls would kill to own most of them, but she knew it was worth it.  She could finally put that idiot behind her and it would take more than a few shopping sprees to replace all of these clothes.

Lord, how she had missed the shopping sprees.

A light layer of glisten began to form across her upper lip, but for once, she simply wiped it away and kept on with what she was doing.  Tying off the first bag, she deposited it at the foot of her bed and headed to her bathroom.  There, she sorted through all the lotions, perfumes, and soaps, pulling out all of the ones that she bought especially for him.  The bottles clanked against each other in the bag as she headed back into her room.

Jackie got down onto her hands and knees on the floor and began cramming the large pile into the garbage bags.  It wasn't long until the bags were full and the room had been stripped to nearly empty.  Rocking back to put her weight on her heels, she surveyed her work.  So much of her life had been wrapped up in him.  Now, as the majority of her memories of him now sat in garbage bags with the rest of their relationship, she finally felt a little bit of release.

It wasn't as much of a quick fix as she had wanted because she knew that this hurt would continue for a long time, but at least maybe now, she could put him out of her mind for a little bit.  Maybe now, she could go a whole hour without having to deal with this anger that seemed to have made its permanent home in her belly.

And there was now tons of shopping to be done in order to replace all of the things she was getting rid of, and that was always a plus.  Shopping would definitely help to put him out of her mind.

Tying off the last bag and dropping it next to the others, she lay back onto her bed.  Jackie gazed up at the ceiling and let the calm of the quiet house surround her and coax the beating of her heart back down to a more normal rate.  Whoever knew that cleaning could be such exercise?  Maybe that's why she had avoided it all of these years.

She reached over her head and grabbed the nearest stuffed unicorn.  She pulled Fluffycakes into the cradle of her arms and rubbed her cheeks over the soft material.  It took her a moment to realize which unicorn it was that she had grabbed, but when she did, that heavy feeling that she had spent all afternoon working away was suddenly back.  She sat up, placed the precious stuffed animal on her knees, and stared the soft pink unicorn in the eyes.

Michael had given Fluffycakes to her shortly after the first time they had proven their love.  His phones were being cleaned that week, and he had wanted to apologize for not calling her after something so amazingly special had taken place.  And since that time, she had been one of her absolute favorite of all of her favorite unicorns.  She didn't want to part with something so precious.

Jackie was mildly surprised that her eyes stayed dry.  She had gotten rid of so many things that she loved, but she could throw away everything in her room, and that still wouldn't erase what she and Michael had had.  He would always be apart of her.

He just wouldn't be her boyfriend anymore.

She calmly placed Fluffycakes back at the head of the bed, making certain that she would be comfortable amongst all of the rest of the stuffed animals, and then went over to her desk.  Sitting down, she pulled out a few pieces of her stationary and sat down to say exactly what it was that she needed to say.

She wished that she had some other design of stationary because, quite frankly, the pretty purple paper with pink unicorns, clouds, and rainbows wasn't exactly portraying the feelings of anger and betrayal, but as it was all she had, it would have to do.

As soon as Jackie put the pen to paper, the words just seemed to flow.  All of the hurt, and the anger, and the pain that he had caused her came to mind as she told him exactly what it was that she was feeling.  He had told her that they weren't right for each other because she made him feel bad about himself, but she was certain that she had never hurt him in the ways that he had hurt her.  And she didn't care just then if she stepped on his feelings.  He had done far worse than that.

When the paper was full, and she had had her say, she placed the pen down, not taking the time to reread the letter, and folded it neatly.  Stuffing it into the matching envelope, she wrote down the address that Donna had given her, and sealed it up.

Jackie rose from the desk, went to her closet to grab a clean shirt, and headed to the bathroom to clean up.  She let her hair out of the clip to brush it out and pull it back into a neat ponytail.  She washed her hands and face, rinsing away all remnants of her hard work.  She then carefully reapplied her make up.

Giving herself one last look over, she nodded in approval.  Michael was gone, they were over, she was getting past it, and she looked great.

She pulled on a pair of high-heeled boots and placed the letter in her purse.  Grabbing a hold of the three garbage bags, she dragged them from the room, slamming the door behind her.  Hauling the bags down the stairs and into the kitchen, Jackie left them by the back door for the maid to take care of later.  She was done with it.

Leaving the house, she locked the door behind her and headed out to the Lincoln that her daddy always let her drive.  The shopping could wait until tomorrow.  A quick stop at the post office and one at the Cheese Palace was all that was needed, and then she would head to the one place that she had been avoiding like the plague for the last week.

***********************************************

Jackie pulled up next to the two-story white house and shifted into park.  Getting out of the car, she took a deep breath and smiled widely.  For the first time in the last week, she felt good.  No, scratch that.  She felt great.  She had quit her job, she had dumped Michael, and she was still caught up in the bravado that told her that she was going to be okay.

She walked across the driveway and around the beautiful blue Corvette that was parked there.  Squaring her shoulders, she told herself that it would all be okay.  It was just Eric, Hyde, and Fez, and she had never been intimidated by them before.  She wasn't going to start now.  She hopped down the stairs and opened the basement door.

Jackie faltered.  The basement was empty save for one very depressed looking Eric Forman who was staring at her as though he couldn't quite figure out who she was or why she was there.  Giving him a withering look, she closed the door behind her and stepped over him to sit on the far end of the couch.

So what if she and Eric had never really been friends?  So what if she hadn't stepped foot in the basement since being abandoned by both Michael and Donna?  She had been hanging out in there for almost as long as the rest of them, and she could be there if she wanted.

A few moments passed in silence.  Jackie stared intently at the television, and though she had always complained in the past when they insisted on watching baseball games, she was now focused on it as though it were the most fascinating thing in the world as she tried to ignore Eric's stare.

"What're you doing here?" The question was straightforward, and even though there was no love lost between the two, Jackie was surprised that he would get to the point as quickly as he had.  "What're you doing here?" He asked again.  "Kelso and Donna aren't here anymore."

Jackie looked down at her hands, and all of the feelings that had been pushing at her for the last week came rushing back.  Her whole life had been wrapped around Michael to the point where his friends had become her friends, but for the first time, she realized that it hadn't been their choice.  Hell, back when they had first started dating, not even Donna had liked her.

"I know," she whispered.

So, maybe this isn't where she belonged.  Maybe she didn't have the right to just come bursting down here.  Maybe she had never had that right.

The tears sprang back into her eyes and she was just about to bolt when she felt something brush against her arm.  Looking over at Eric, she saw that he had turned his attention back to the game but was offering her some of his chips.  She sniffled once, pushing the tears back, and smiled.  

"Thanks," she said, taking a few chips.

He nodded, not looking at her, and took a few chips himself.  Silence fell back between them, the only sounds in the room coming from the television and the crinkling of the bag of chips.

The quiet boredom settled down over Jackie as she munched her chips thoughtfully.  Now she remembered why it was that she always complained so loudly whenever they wanted to watch baseball.  It really was very boring.

The door leading from the kitchen slammed open and the room echoed with the thump of footsteps on the hard wooden stairs.  Jackie turned to see Hyde and Fez coming down.  She raised an eyebrow expectantly as they both paused at the sight of her, but neither said anything as they came into the room and took their respective seats.  Hyde looked at her, not blinking an eye at her sudden appearance, and leaned over to steal the bag of potato chips that were now sitting on her lap.

Jackie sighed heavily, rolling her eyes at the guys who were all sitting sullenly, staring at the ongoing game.  They really did need her in their lives after all because their worlds were apparently very dull without her.

She turned back to the television and rolled her eyes once again.  "Jeez, that guy is such an ugo."  She laughed as they turned their blank gazes toward her.  "I mean, seriously.  That sweating is so unattractive.  Yuck."

A short silence passed.

"And what is up with those pants?"  Jackie pointed at the screen, looking at Fez for support.  "It's like, there should be a weight limit on those things."

The three boys exchanged short looks before Hyde turned to her.  "Yeah, Jackie," he said.  "If you're going to want to be down here, you're going to have to not talk."

She stuck her tongue out at him, but fell quiet as their blank stares shifted back toward the television.  She leaned over and snatched the chips back out of his hands, sending him a look daring him to try to get them back.  He simply shook his head and went back to the game.

Jackie smiled as Eric took another chip, Fez stuck his feet out onto the table, clicking his toes together to some beat inside his head, and Hyde snapped his fingers at her, pointing to the bag of chips.  

So, Michael was gone, and the relationship that had been her whole life was now over.  That just meant that it was time for her to start building her own life.


	2. The Price is So Wrong

Okay, so here's chapter two, and I think that this may be the quickest that I have ever updated a story.  Go me!

Thanks for all of the reviews, and another big kiss goes out to Tania.

**Two:  The Price Is Wrong….**

"Evelyn Peabody!"  The voice of the TV announcer bounced across the walls of basement.  "Come on down!  You're the next contestant on "The Price is Right!"

Jackie rolled her eyes, groaning as she settled back further into the old couch.  "Another old lady!"  Leaning forward, she yelled her frustrations at the old TV.  "She can't even reach the wheel."

"I can't watch "The Price is Right" again.  I just can't."  Hyde moaned from his position sprawled out beside her.

Jackie shrugged her shoulders, sighing in utter defeat.  She was hot, she was bored, and there was no end to the misery in sight.  She needed a distraction.  "This summer totally sucks.  There's nothing to do."  She glanced over at him, waiting for some sort of agreement.  Not that she actually expected one.  She and Hyde had never really been about the conversations that didn't involve insults.  She was more than a little surprised to find that he had even spared her a glance.

The room must have been too hot and the summer just too uneventful because Jackie found her eyes pulled down to his mouth.  Her heart skipped a beat at the sudden quirk of his eyebrows beneath his dark glasses and the slight glimpse of tongue as he licked his lips.

Oh God.  A slight flex of pecs, and Jackie felt her own chest inflate with the sudden intake of breath.  That was hot.

And then thought ceased as she leaned over, meeting his lips half-way.  The kiss was short and chaste, but oh so soft.

Jackie leaned back, forcing her gaze back to screen.  Her head spun, but it had nothing to do with the heat, the boredom, or the little old lady that had just won a new dining room set.  

She turned back to Hyde, and this time, there was nothing experimental or chaste about it.  His fingers wove through her hair and her hand clutched at his forearm as their mouths met once again.  

Hyde's mouth was insistent as it slid across hers, tugging at her lower lip.  His fingers clenched in her hair, tilting the angle of her head to bring her even closer as her hand caressed up his arm and fisted his sleeve.  Using his arm as leverage, she pulled herself up and pushed him to lean back against the couch.

His hand slipped from her hair and moved down to lightly grasp her hip.  His other hand found the other hip and he lifted her, guiding one leg over him so that she straddled his lap.  His fingers tightened, pulling her down so that she was flush with his chest.

The impact of her chest to his had Jackie opening her mouth to push out a surprised breath.  Hyde took the opportunity to dart out his tongue, lightly caressing against the sensitive inner skin of her lips, waiting for her to respond.  

Her head was absolutely spinning out of control, her senses surrounded by his soap clean smell, the rasp of his beard against her cheek, and his deep groan as her tongue smoothed out to meet his.

She couldn't tell exactly how much time was passing; all she could focus on was her hand clenched in his hair, his body heat soaking through her shirt, and his mouth moving under hers.  There was definitely nothing boring about this.

Jackie's mouth froze against Hyde's at the loud bang of the basement door being slammed open.  Her eyes opened wide to find Hyde staring straight back at her.  She pushed hard against his chest, leaping off his lap and to the opposite side of the couch.  The panic pounded against her ribcage as Eric's footsteps thumped against the stairs.

Don't look at him, don't look at him, she told herself.  If I don't look at him, he won't know.  There's no way he could know.  Jackie sat ramrod straight, her hands clenched in her lap as she tried to control her heavy breathing.  She was sure that she could feel the heavy weight of Eric's stare on her.  He knows.  Oh God, he knows!

"So, what're you guys watching?"  Eric dropped down on the couch between them.  He stretched his legs out onto the table and slumped down, sighing heavily.

Jackie glanced at him quickly out of the corner of her eye.  He was staring blankly at the TV, his expression buried in the depression that had been plaguing him ever since Donna left.  He was so fixated on his problems that he had no clue about what was going on with everyone else.  What a selfish dill hole!  He really needs to get over himself.

Her eyes slid past Eric to meet Hyde's, but as quickly as their gazes met, they shifted away.  

Hyde recovered first, crossing his legs and clearing his throat.  "It's the end of "The Price is Right," man."

"Oh goodie, cause, yeah.  Who doesn't love "The Price is Right?"  

Jackie rolled her eyes, crossing her legs at the knees.  Her heart was starting to slow down and her breathing was evening out.  But the quiet also gave her time to think.  She had just made out with Steven Hyde.  Steven Hyde!  This summer had just gone from deathly boring to something straight out of the Twilight Zone.

Okay, so obviously thinking is bad.  Now is not the time to think about what just happened and how completely wrong it was.  Now is the time to repress, focus on something else.  Her nose twitched as she looked at Eric once again, careful not to let her gaze slid toward Steven.  "You know, Eric.  I get the fact that you're broken-hearted and all, but that really doesn't give you the right to neglect your personal hygiene."

Hyde let out a short laugh, looking away from the TV for the first time since Eric had entered the basement.  His mouth opened to agree, but he quickly snapped it shut, gluing his eyes back on the screen.

"Jackie, I don't really think that you can understand what I'm going through, being as that you don't have a heart and all."  Eric shrugged, staring forlornly at the screaming old lady that had just won a new Winnebago.  "And anyway, this is my basement.  I can smell bad in it if I want to."

"Oh God.  Is this the part where you start complaining about how it's been three weeks and she still hasn't called?" Jackie asked, ignoring the jab about her not having a heart.  "Because if it is, isn't it a little early for you to be up?  You should be upstairs, bemoaning how retarded you were to let Donna go.  Cause, seriously, nobody here really wants to deal with your whining right now."

"Huh, well that's funny, Jackie, because nobody here wants to deal with your whining either.  And yet, you still come around all of the time."  Eric waved a hand at her, dismissing her comments.

"Oh, whatever," Jackie snapped back, the craziness of the morning putting an extra bite into her words.  "You're not the only one who lost someone this summer, you know.  And Michael and I were actually together.  But you don't hear me complaining about it all the time, do you?"

"Yes we do!"  Eric turned his attention from the television to her, his eyebrows drawn up high on his forehead.  "Everyday you come down here, it's all "Michael's a dumbass," and "I hate Michael."  Why are you even here?"

"Hey!  I can be here if I want to be here, mister." Jackie turned in her seat, folding a leg beneath her, and poked a finger into Eric's arm.  "This isn't just your basement, you know."

"Yes, it is!"

"Okay, you know what?  You two need to shut up," Hyde said, standing and walking around the couch toward the door.  "You're giving me a headache."

Jackie and Eric's both watched as Hyde started to leave.  "Wait, Steven.  Where are you going?"

"Yeah, man.  If anyone has to go, we'll just kick Jackie out."

"Hey, shut up!"  

"I'm going to work.  Leo isn't nearly as whiny as you two little girls."  The door slammed behind Hyde, shuttering slightly in his wake.

"Now, see what you did, Jackie."  Eric gestured toward the door and scooted to the far end of the couch.  "You made him go away."

"Ha," Jackie scoffed, pointing a finger back at him.  "If somebody would take a shower a little more regularly, then maybe they'd have a few more friends."

Eric simply stared back at her, a slow, smug smile wiping across his mouth.  "Oh yeah, that was me, Jackie.  That was me."

Jackie crinkled up her nose in disgust as the foul smell came waffling toward her.  Pushing herself off of the couch, she headed toward the door.  "Ugh!  You're horrible!"

************************************

Tossing her shopping bags down on the bed, Jackie pushed out an exasperated breath.  She had been shopping all day, she had spent tons of money, and she had gotten tons of pretty new things.  But had it helped?  No.  Not at all.

A short whine escaped her lips as she flopped down onto her bed.  Shopping always made her feel better.  When Michael had cheated the first time, she had gone shopping.  When she first found out that he was dating Laurie, she had gone shopping.  When her dad told her that he would cut her off if she didn't break up with Michael, she had gone shopping.  And each of those times, she had left the mall feeling tons better, if even just for a moment.

"Not this time," she grumbled, picking up Llama Cass and looking her in the eye.  This time, the knot that had formed in her stomach just seemed to be getting larger with each passing moment.

Steven Hyde.  Steven Hyde_.  _She had made out with _Steven Hyde_.

Jackie shivered as of jolt of electricity shot up her spine at the memory.  She remembered her first kiss with Steven, all those months ago at the Veteran's Day barbeque and it was definitely hot, but that morning?  Hot couldn't even begin to describe that.

And sure, of course Steven was a good kisser.  He always seemed to have some slut of the week, but Wow!  She had had not idea.  

Who knew that Steven's lips would be so soft, or that his hands would be so warm?  Who knew that he would smell so good, or that he would just feel so amazing?

A soft smile curved the corners of Jackie's mouth, her fingers coming up to touch them lightly.  Her eyes fluttered shut, and for a moment, she could almost feel the rough caress of his tongue.

Her eyes shot open at the thought and she sprung off the bed, pacing around the room.  This was wrong.  This was so very wrong.  Making out with Steven was nothing but wrong.

Hours later and her head was still just absolutely spinning from the very idea that she had been on top of him, kissing him and touching him; having him kiss her and touch her.  It didn't make any sense.

She remembered the air quotes – crush she had had on him all of that time ago, and the kiss that had come as a result, but this was nothing like that.  She wasn't blinded by a broken heart and a stupid infatuation.  No, this time had been out of pure boredom and curiosity, but that just made it ten times worse because now she knew that he was so completely not an option.

"I mean, he's just so poor and scruffy.  Can you believe that he doesn't shave anymore?"  She scoffed in the back of her throat.  "Please, beards are so on their way out.  Like last year, when Michael was growing that beard, and he looked so hot in it.  Beards were in then, but it's summer and that horrible fashion trend has thankfully passed us all by.  This season is really more about…"  Jackie trailed off as what she had just said finally hit her.

Michael.  

All of this craziness going on with Steven, and she had yet to think about Michael all day.  And while that was definitely a good thing, she couldn't stop the thought from popping into her mind.  What if that make-out with Steven hadn't been about boredom at all?  What if that had, in the back of her mind, been some kind of way to get back at Michael leaving her?

Jackie rolled the idea over in her mind, replaying the days events in her mind.  No, she told herself.  Michael had certainly not been anywhere in her mind when she had crawled up onto Steven's lap.  She groaned again as the thought prompted imagery to flood back into her mind.  

She pushed herself back up into a sitting position, crossing her legs Indian style, and shook the pictures from her mind.  "Whatever the reason, it won't be happening again.  I'm sure that will be devastating for him, but Steven is just going to have to accept that.  I am not opened for business."  She punctuated each word by tapping a finger on the bedspread.

She nodded to herself.  She would just go back down into the basement like she did every morning and she would set him straight.  He probably wouldn't be very happy about it, but that's just the way things were.

************************************

Jackie smiled at herself in the rearview mirror, making sure that she didn't have any lipstick smeared on her teeth and that her hair was in perfect order.  She climbed out of the car and slammed the door behind her.  Her hands smoothed over the length of the cute pink skirt she was wearing, pulling the non-existent wrinkles out.

She had gotten up just a little bit earlier than usual that morning, and although she always looked cute, she put just a little bit more effort into her appearance.  The pink skirt and soft white halter top made up one of the cutest of her new outfits.  She knew that it probably wasn't fair to be dressed like she was when she was getting ready to shoot Hyde down, but she was Jackie Burkhart, and Jackie Burkhart was always a heart breaker.

Giving her hair one last fluff, she headed down toward the basement.  Once she got there, she was surprised to find that Hyde wasn't there.  He was pretty much always in front of the television by that time.

She shook her head and refused to let her composure slip.  Sure, her plan was a little put off by the fact that he wasn't there and she couldn't start her little Dear John speech right away, but she was still in control.  She was always in control.

Jackie sat down on the couch to wait and crossed her legs.  The edge of her heels bounced against the table, each passing second accented by a small tap.  She glanced at her watch and felt the annoyance seep through her veins.  That was just so like Steven.  He couldn't be here when she was all ready to let him down kind of easily.  No, he had to make her wait.  

He could be so selfish sometimes.

Well, as captain of the cheerleading team, she didn't wait on anybody.  Pushing herself off the couch, she decided that she would just come back later.  If anybody was going to be waiting, it was going to be him.

"Jackie."

Hyde's voice stopped her dead in her tracks.  She turned to see that he had just come out of his room.  His hair was still damp from his shower and he hadn't put his sunglasses on just yet.  It was rare to see him without his sunglasses, and she couldn't stop herself from thinking that he really did have very pretty eyes.

"Steven."  She could tell that he was a little surprised to see her there, though she didn't know why.  She was always there by this time.  He nodded at her, and she smirked slightly as she noticed that he had dark circles underneath his eyes from a seemingly sleepless night.  Oh yeah, somebody was definitely going be unhappy with her news.

The surprise quickly dropped off Hyde's face to be replaced by his usual zen-like mask.  He gestured her toward the couch as he walked to his chair.  "Jackie, we need to talk," he said, sitting down.

She raised one eyebrow at him and walked over to the end of the couch closest to him.  Dropping down onto the cushions, she recrossed her legs, making sure that the skirt rose a little over her knees.  "I agree," she told him.

Hyde began talking, and Jackie couldn't stop her eyes from traveling down to his lips.  She watched as they moved from behind that beard that he refused to shave, and for a moment, she let herself remember what it felt like to kiss him.  Jeez, had that really been less than 24 hours ago?

"So, basically, you're annoying."  

Jackie snapped to attention as his words finally made their way to her brain.  "Excuse me."

Hyde held out his hands in a placating manner.  "It's nothing personal, Jackie.  It just ain't happening again."

"Whoa!  Whoa!"  Jackie held up both of her hands, her fingers spread wide, to stop him from talking.  She paused and let his words soak in.  "Are you –"  She jabbed one finger into his tricep.  "Telling me –"  She pointed the finger at herself.  "That you don't want to fool around with me?"

"Uh, yeah."  Hyde stood up to turn on the television, obviously considering the conversation to be over.  He sat back down, crossed one leg over the other, and settled in to watch "Let's Make A Deal."

Jackie snapped out of her state of shock.  "Oh, no, no, no."  She waggled a finger at him.  "I don't think so, mister.  I am a cheerleader.  The captain of the varsity squad, in fact.  All guys want to fool around with me."  She shook her head at the way he rolled his eyes.  "No, I am the one who is saying that it will never happen again."

Hyde continued to stare at the T.V., not giving her a second glance.  "Whatever."

Jackie leaned back into the couch and shot him a dirty look.  "Yeah, because I am the hottest girl in Point Place.  Everybody knows that."

"Whatever."

Jackie propped her elbow up on the arm of the couch and looked at the television, deciding that she was just going to ignore Hyde.  After one more comment.  "You even said it yourself.  You think I'm totally hot."

Hyde was silent a second before throwing that word back out at her.  "Whatever."

"Yeah," Jackie grumbled back quietly.  "Whatever."

The room fell back into silence as "Let's Make a Deal" ended and the opening chorus for "The Price is Right" filled the small basement.

Jackie couldn't tell who reached for who first, but if asked, she would have most certainly said that it was him.  All she knew was that his lips were covering hers, his weight was pressing her back down into the couch, and she was deliciously warm.

But this was most definitely going to be the last time that it happened.


	3. Drink 'Til You Just Can't Drink No More

Big thanks as always to the loverly Tania, and I hope you enjoy.  Let me know if you do!

**Three:  Drinking 'Til You Just Can't Drink No More….**

Jackie moaned deep in her throat, her back arching as Hyde's mouth latched onto her pulse point.  Her hands slid restlessly up and down his back as she tried to pull his weight further down onto her.  It didn't matter how the summer kept dragging on because Jackie's new hobby was keeping her more than occupied enough.

Hyde's mouth slid up her neck and to her earlobe, licking across the patch of skin just below it.  Jackie shivered in his arms and tilted her head to the right to nuzzle her cheek against his.  His beard rasped against her skin, the sensation of it so new and foreign.  

His hands were resting along the arm of the couch just behind her head, his fingers tangled in the silky strands of her hair as his body hovered over hers.  His weight was solid and real as it surrounded her, but unlike the stifling heat of summer, his warmth felt delicious.  Her fingers trailed along his sides, and then down around his ribcage, soaking in that heat as she learned the contours of his body.

It had been just over a week, and she was finally becoming resigned to the fact that this little fling was not necessarily a bad thing.  She came over to the Forman's all of the time anyway, and it was definitely helping to pass the slow summer months without dwelling on all of the crap that had happened recently.  

Plus, damn if Steven wasn't a good kisser.

But, as it was a fling, and still a little creepy to think about the fact that they were fooling around, it was a silent mutual agreement that they keep these little rendezvous a secret.  And that meant being very careful when it came to about mid-morning as that was right about the time that the other two would crawl out of their holes and end up in the basement.

"Steven."

The word came out as a soft groan.  Hyde ignored her, shifting his weight and dragging his lips down the curve of her jaw.

"Steven," Jackie said again.  Her hands slipped up his torso and pushed lightly on his chest.  "Eric… he's going to be down any minute."

Again Hyde ignored her, moving his mouth back to hers.  His tongue darted out to trace the line of her lips and urge them open.  

Jackie persisted, however, kissing him back once before returning to the matter at hand.  "Steven, we have to stop."  She pushed at his shoulders again.

Hyde pulled up then.  His hands gripped the back of the couch as he supported his weight off of her, tugging accidentally at her hair.  He looked at her blankly for a second before speaking.  "Jackie.  There's a time and a place for you to be talking, but it isn't around me."

She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to protest, but Hyde saw this as his perfect opportunity and returned to her parted lips.  His tongue delved inside, and it didn't take Jackie very long to lose her train of thought as he scraped lightly along the bottom of her teeth and then rolled across the roof of her mouth.  Her tongue reached out to meet his, and then guided it back into her mouth.  Jackie's fingers twisted on his shirt as her head canted and her lips opened wider.

All ideas about how dangerous it was for them to keep going melted away as the kiss deepened.  Jackie's hands smoothed around under his arms to return to his back and her legs wrapped around his thighs, trapping him to her body.  She arched up again as their lips and tongues danced along with each other.

Hyde smiled against her mouth and inched back just a bit.  "That's much better," he said, dropping one kiss on her chin before going back to her mouth.  This time, however, they didn't get the chance to get much further as the sound of the basement door slamming open echoed against the walls.

"Crap."  Hyde jerked away from Jackie to sit up, but his fingers were still tangled in her hair.

"Ouch!" she whined, one hand pushing against his chest and the other going up to smooth out her silky locks.

"Shut up," he ordered back.  He shoved himself off of her, forgetting that her legs were still wrapped around his.  "Crap!"  The curse came much louder this time as Hyde lost his balance and tipped over the side of the couch.

Jackie's eyes grew round and her hand slapped over her mouth to cover her eruption of giggles.  She straightened up to a sitting position on the couch and folded her legs beneath her.  Laughter danced in her eyes as she stared down at him.

Hyde pulled himself off of the ground to kneel in front of the couch, and he couldn't help but glance up at Eric as he hopped down the stairs.  The embarrassment written on his features was quickly hardened down to that famous Hyde scowl.

Eric paused on the steps.  "What're you guys doing?"

Hyde stood up quickly and brushed off his jeans.  He opened his mouth to respond, but Jackie beat him to the punch.

"Steven was just declaring his deep and unending love for me."  Her arm stretched along the back of the couch as she twisted to see Eric.  "But, sadly, I'm going to have to turn him down."  She turned back to Hyde, a sympathetic smile curving her lips.  "It's the beard… and the ratty t-shirts.  They do absolutely nothing for me."

Both guys rolled their eyes.  "I dropped my sunglasses."  Hyde picked said sunglasses off of the table before heading back to his seat.  "Jackie was just getting in my way.  Like she's always getting in my way."

"Really, Hyde?"  Eric took the last step and walked over to his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder.  He cocked his head at Jackie.  "Cause I know how you've always had a little bit of a thing for the bossy and shallow.  I think it has something to do with the whiny pitch in their voices.  I mean, who wouldn't fall in love with that?"

Jackie raised one eyebrow haughtily.  "Actually, Eric.  I think it has a little bit more to do with the fact that I'm hot."  She held up her hands, palm up, and smiled prettily.  Her gaze slid over to Hyde as he looked at her impassively.  "And I am not shallow!"

"Whatever."  Eric slumped down on the couch beside her.  "Is it 'The Price is Right' time?"  His voice was even flatter than normal as he focused on the TV.  "Because, you know, 'The Price is Right' time is the high-light of my every summer day."

"Well, then, Mr. Lazy Guy."  Eric winced at the chipperness in Jackie's voice.  "You probably should have been down here over an hour ago.  We've moved on to 'The Family Feud.'"

"Aw."  Eric slumped down into his seat and kicked his feet up onto the table.

"I'm glad that you weren't up here for 'The Price is Right,' though.  You're such a drag to watch game shows with."  Jackie nodded matter-of-factly.

"I am not!"

"I'm sorry, man, because you know how much I hate to agree with Jackie."  Hyde ignored the glare that she shot him.  "But you suck even more than usual this summer."

Eric sighed heavily.  That little boy pout settled over his features, pulling at the edges of his lips and dragging down his eyebrows.  "I'm sorry.  It's just that, you know.  She's been gone almost a month – "  Eric was cut off by the collective groans of the other two.

"Not this again," Hyde moaned.

Jackie opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when Fez swung open the door and glided through.

"Good morning, my dearest friends."  He grinned at them and dropped down into the lawn chair.  "Is it not just a beautiful day?  The sun is shining; the birds are singing their wonderful tunes…"  He paused when his gaze landed on Eric.  "And Eric is crying like a little girl once again."

"I'm not crying," Eric protested, crossing his arms over his chest.  "I'm just… I'm just…"

"Crying," Hyde finished for him matter-of-factly.

Eric shot him a defeated look.  "Crying."

"Seriously, Eric."  Jackie poked him in the arm.  "Are you really going to just sit there and mope about Donna all summer long?"

"Yes."

Hyde and Fez both groaned again, turning their attention to the television, intent on the idea that they would ignore Eric for the rest of the morning.   But Jackie wasn't finished with him just yet.

"Come on," she told him, poking him in the arm again to get his attention.  "You just need to be more like me.   I mean, Michael left me, but you don't hear me complaining about it all of the time, do you?"

This was enough to pull Hyde back into the conversation.  "Yes, we do.  Everyday.  You're worse than Fez," he said, gesturing across the room.

Fez glanced away from the T.V., chagrined, but then, his face broke like he was going to cry.  "Kelso is my friend!"

"Crap, man," Hyde groused, dismissing them all with a wave of his hand.  "I really need to find some less girly friends.  Donna was the biggest man in this bunch."

"Okay, look, you guys."  Jackie waved her hands in the air to quiet them down.  She stopped for a second before turning to Hyde in agreement.  "You know, she really was… Anyway, as I was saying.  We have all let Donna and Michael ruin too much of our summer, and I for one, am tired of how lame these past few weeks have been.  We need to do something fun."

Eric looked at her blankly.  "I'm not letting you paint my fingernails."

Jackie rolled her eyes.  "Please, like I'd go near those cuticles."  She shifted on the couch to turn more toward Eric and Hyde.  "No, okay, here's the plan.  My parents are out of town, so how about you boys come over and we'll have one night, just one night, to bitch and complain and get Michael and Donna out of our systems.  Then, it will be over and behind us, and we can start having some fun with our summer!"  Her smile was wide and excited as she clapped her hands eagerly.

"No, thank you."

"Uh, no."

"Are you still here?"

Jackie slapped Eric's arm, refusing to let them put a damper on her great idea.  "Come on, guys.  It'll be fun."

Eric didn't even look at her when he batted her hand away.  "Jackie, I hear you complain enough when you come over to my basement everyday against my will.  Why would I knowingly walk into a situation where I know you'll be talking?" 

She was quiet for a moment as she regarded the three losers that she was, for some unknown reason, wasting her summer away with.  She really wanted to do this party.  It would be good for all of them.  "Well," she replied.  "You've all seen my parent's liquor cabinet, right?"  She smiled satisfactorily.

"Oh, goodie."

"Alrighty then."

"I'll see you tonight."

*********************************************

"It's just…"  Eric took a giant swig of his beer and gestured wildly with his free hand.  "Why did she have to leave, you know?  Everybody knows that I'm all stupid at first, but I generally come around.  I mean, I usually pull it together in the end, right?"

Jackie shook her head, not sparing him a glance.  "Can you believe that his solution to solving all of our problems was to kiss another girl?  How horrible is that?  I'm mad that you cheated on me, so we'll be even if I get to cheat on you.  In what world does that solve any problems?"

It was well past mid-night and the two were sitting side by side on the floor in front of the couch in the Burkhart living room.  The floor around them was littered with beer cans, empty bottles, and overturned glasses.  The other two had long since dropped out of their bitchfest in favor of sleep.  Fez now snored quietly, all curled up in an armchair, while Hyde lay stretched out on the sofa behind them.

Eric wiped the back of his hand across his mouth.  "I always have to let my stupid pride get in the way of things, and it's like Red said.  What do I have to be so proud about?  I mean, how often does a guy like me get a girl like Donna?  I was the luckiest man on Earth!"

"No, you know who the luckiest man on Earth was?  Michael."  Jackie pointed her almost empty beer in Eric's direction.  "Seriously, he cheats on me like a billion times with sluts like Pam Macy and your sister, and I still take him back!  Then, he tells me he's not sorry that he broke my heart into a million pieces because I was mad he couldn't buy me tater tots?  I deserve tater tots!  And he deserves… he deserves… well, he deserves something bad like syphilis or balding, that's for sure."

Eric swallowed down the last of his beer and set it down on the ground in the pile of other empty beer cans beside him.  He rubbed a hand tiredly over his forehead.  "It was supposed to be true love."  His words slurred together as he glanced over at Jackie.  "I've known her my whole life, and she's been like this great friend, and she's so beautiful, and I would do anything for her."  He paused.  "I can't believe that I screwed this up again!  How can one guy be so idiotic?"

Jackie threw up her hands in agreement, a drop of beer swishing over the side of the can at the sudden movement.  "I know.  How many times did Michael have to screw me over before I realized what a stupid idiot he was?"  She tapped Eric on the arm and looked at him in all seriousness.  "I'm generally much better at reading people."

Eric looked at her, cocking his head in confusion as if it were the first time that evening that he was seeing her.  He realized that she hadn't been listening to a word he had been saying, and the only thing this whole get-drunk-get-over-Donna thing was going to give him was a raging headache in the morning.  He gestured toward the two beers left sitting on the table and looked away from her, his sullen gaze landing on his outstretched legs.

Jackie reached forward, grabbed the beer, and handed it off to him.  They had been at their complaining so long that the alcohol had mellowed down more toward room temperature so she wiped the condensation off on Eric's pants.  She looked over at him, his figure a little blurry as her eyelids drooped sleepily, and she realized that she hadn't listened to a word he'd said all night.  Now, that really wasn't all that out of the ordinary because she usually made a conscious effort not to listen to anything Eric said, but tonight was about letting him get over Donna a bit.  As much fun as hangovers were, she was pretty sure that he was going to need a little bit more than that.

So, the silence dropped around them, both lost in thought.  Eric let his head drop back against the cushions of the couch and his eyes fell shut.  He blindly popped open the top of his beer, but didn't take a drink.  He ran the edge of the can over his parched lips before setting it down on the ground beside him.  

Jackie watched his movements, and for the first time that summer, she felt a pang of pity shoot across her stomach for him.  In the last year, with all that had happened with Michael and with the exciting prospect of being able to baby shop with her best friend, she had forgotten how much Eric and Donna had been in love.  

Their love had not been something that she had ever understood, what with Donna being such an amazon and Eric being such a skinny dork and everything, but for the most part, they had been happy together.  Jackie watched Eric's Adam's apple bob as he swallowed, trying to bring moisture into his dry throat.  Despite the hours of drowning their sorrows in alcohol, she could still see that sadness written across his sleepy features.

Jackie cleared her throat, not sure if she really wanted to have this conversation with him, but when he cracked open one eye to look at her, she decided to push on.

"Eric?"

His head came up off of the couch and he opened the other eye to look at her. 

Her lips twisted in a small grimace as she tried to piece together the right words.  "Have you ever considered the idea that maybe Donna just isn't the one for you?"

"No."

Her eyebrows rose at how quickly and matter of factly he had spoken.  "Never?"

Jackie couldn't say that she had ever really seen Eric mad, so she was taken aback by the sudden anger that flashed across his features.  She held up her hands to stop him before he could speak.  "I'm not trying to be mean here, Eric.  I really want to know.  I mean, sure.  You guys were in love, but not everybody that falls in love ends up together.  Look at Sonny and Cher."

Eric rolled his eyes at her last statement, but the resentment at her question quickly faded.  He was quiet for another moment, his stare settling on his blue sneakers.  Jackie was beginning to think that he wasn't going to answer her at all when he cleared his throat.

"No."  He cleared his throat again, and looked up at her.  "No.  Donna is the one."

Jackie's eyes searched his face, seeing his calm determination through her haze of alcohol.  She tried to come up with something to say to that, but for once, she couldn't come up with anything.

"Even when we broke, after she started dating Casey and everything, I never considered anyone else," he said, his voice clear and steady, despite his inebriated state.  "I think that I convinced myself that I was okay without her, that maybe I didn't love her anymore… but when I looked into my future, there was never anyone else."

Eric's gaze broke from hers and landed on the can in his hand.  He started rotating his wrist, twirling the can and swishing the luke warm liquid inside.  "You know, she's a writer, and I'm… I don't know, a jazz guitarist –"

Jackie tried to swallow her laughter.  "A jazz guitarist?"

Eric didn't even spare her a glance.  "Or maybe a teacher or something.  And we're together."  The words seemed to get caught in his throat.  "But, you know.  I threw that all away.  And now, she may never want me back."

The tears formed in Jackie's eyes, and she couldn't believe that she was crying over Eric and Donna's break-up.  But she couldn't help it.  It was like _Gone With The Wind_, except, being that Donna was such a man, she was Rhett Butler and Eric was Scarlet O' Hara.  Eric had screwed up so many times that now Donna wasn't going to give a damn, and he was going to have to go back to his home all alone.  It was so sad.

She opened her mouth to tell him that when a low groan broke into their conversation.

"God," Hyde said groggily.  "Are you two _still_ going at it?  Shut up already."  He stretched his legs out and rolled over so that his back was facing them.

Jackie looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes trailing along the expanse of his back.  She turned toward Eric again and the vacant look on his face, and decided that he probably didn't care all that much about her _Gone With The Wind_ analogy.

Reaching forward to grab the last beer off of the table, Jackie let the silence settle back over them.  She popped the top and leaned back to take a drink.  The warm liquid burned a path down her throat, and she grimaced at the taste.  Setting the can back down, she glanced at Eric out of the corner of her eye.

Poor guy, she told herself.  Maybe she really wasn't the only person who had had their heart broken that summer.

"So," Eric started.  Jackie looked up at him.  "What about you?"

She cocked her head in confusion.  "What about me?"

He shrugged, glancing away from her.  "Was there ever a time when you thought Kelso wasn't the one?"

Jackie stayed quiet for a moment, rolling the question around in her mind.  "Yes," she said finally.

Eric nodded, but didn't say anything as he waited for her to continue.

"I wanted him to be the one."  Jackie's eyes locked with his, and she could see a sort of caring in his expression.  That wasn't something she was used to from him.  "I had this whole future planned out for us starting from our first date."  She laughed, a hollow sadness echoing in the sound.  "Do you know that I already have the plans for our wedding all set up?"

"It was purple plates with pink unicorns, right?" Eric asked.

"Actually, it was pink and purple plates that had unicorns on them, but close enough."  She waved a hand through the air.  "And Michael was going to be a rich and famous doctor, and I was going to be his wife.  And we were going to have the most beautiful babies."  She turned to him, placing a hand on his arm.  "And they would be beautiful, too, with Michael's bone structure and my naturally beautiful coloring."

"Of course."  He shrugged his shoulders.

"But sometimes."  She paused, crossing one leg over the other.  "Sometimes, I would look at him, and he would be playing with his superball or running off to play on the Henderson's new jungle gym, and I would realize that that wasn't who he was.  That wasn't who we were…  Because he's stupid."

He chuckled.  "You guys did have your good moments, though," Eric said.  He smiled at her encouragingly.

"Yeah, we did."  Jackie brushed her hair behind her ears.  She thought back to that day only a month ago when she had vowed to clean Michael out of her life.  She remembered how much it hurt to think about all of the amazing memories they had in that room, how much it had hurt to say good-bye to them.  "And that's what kept me hanging on so long.  I tried so hard to keep a hold of that dream of our perfect life, and look how many times it's broken my heart."

When Jackie finished speaking, her voice was barely a whisper.  She closed her eyes against the tears that were forming again because she'd promised herself that she was through crying over him. 

And for the most part, she'd kept that promise this summer.  She was moving on, and her relationship with Michael would probably always cause her some pain, but she was getting over it.  She was being strong this time.

She glanced over her shoulder at Hyde.  All she could see of him was that curly brown fro, but it made her smile slightly, nonetheless.

He was different.  They were different.  And that felt so good.

Because Jackie knew herself well enough to know that she was controlled by her emotions… and her pretty things, but mostly her emotions.  Everything about her time with Michael had been about the feeling of their passionate, fiery love affair.  And that fire had burned her and wrecked her more times than she could count.

And now there was Steven, and the great thing about Steven was that there were no emotions involved.  They kissed, they made out, and when it was over, they just went back to being Jackie and Hyde.  It wasn't awkward and it wasn't hard.  It was just a fun way to pass the time.

So, when they were finished, and others were in the room, it didn't hurt.  It didn't wreck her.  And that's what she needed most of all:  to not be wrecked.

Jackie was brought back into the now by Eric nudging her shoulder.  "So, do you think you'll ever get back with Kelso?"

She shook her head, but she could see a bit of disbelief in his eyes.  She knew that she had been here before, and she had said these words before, but there was no going back this time.  For some reason, she felt it was important that Eric understand that.

"I'm not going to go back with Michael again," she told him firmly.  "This is the end of the line for us because, for the first time, I can look at him and see him for him.  I don't hate him for who he is.  I just can't be with him anymore."

Eric nodded at her.  A few seconds past, and then he shifted over, lifting an arm to place it along the couch behind her shoulders. 

Jackie smiled at him in surprise, and let her head fall onto his shoulder.  "Eric?"

"Hmmm?"

"You're going to get that forever with Donna."  She said the words as though they were fact.  "Because you two, well, you two were really good together."

"Thank you, Jackie."  He didn't even try to hide his surprise.

"Yup.  You're one of the good guys, Eric.  Even if you do only weight eighty pounds."  She could feel his shoulder shake in laughter.  "But you deserve a girl like Donna, and if she can't see that, well, then it's her loss."

"Thank you."  

Jackie nodded at the sincerity in his voice, her head rolling back along his arm so that she could smile up at him.

"Hey," Eric said after a short silence.  "When did you start being all nice to me?"

"Oh, I'm drunk."

He laughed at her bluntness.

"Yeah."  Her giggles mixed with his.  "I don't usually drink this much.  Just wait for my hangover to pass and we'll be all back to normal."


	4. Jethro is Hot!

Sorry about the delay.  The next chapter will hopefully be up by mid next week.

**Four:  Jethro Is Hot….**

"Oh, this is so exciting."  Fez bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for Eric to unlock the car door.  "I like going to concerts.  Fun things always happen."

"Yeah, like last time."  Hyde leaned against the side of the car, crossing his arms over his chest.  "Because who doesn't love getting arrested?"

"I know."  Fez smiled widely at Eric, who seemed frozen in his steps just a few feet away from them.

"Yeah, about that," he said.  "You guys don't happen to have any counterfeit material on you right now, do you?  Cause, don't get me wrong, nobody loves a good arresting like me, but it's the foot in my ass afterward that I'm opposed to."

"Relax, Forman."  Hyde stepped away from the door as Eric came forward to unlock it.  "The only selling we're going to be doing tonight is for Kelso's ticket."  He patted the extra ticket sticking out of his front t-shirt pocket.

Fez reached into the open car to unlock the back door.  "Yes, and that is the fun type of selling because Kelso's ticket equals beer money."

"Alrighty, then.  We're all set?"  Eric looked questioningly at the other two.  At their nods, he turned to walk to his side of the car.  "Then let's get going."

"Going where?"

Everyone froze at the familiar feminine voice. 

Eric turned around slowly, flashing a too wide grin at her.  "Going?  We're not going anywhere.  What makes you think we're going anywhere?" his voice cracked.

Jackie's eyes narrowed at the three guys, her gaze shifting back and forth between them.  "Well," she started slowly.  "You guys are getting in the car, for one thing.  Plus, there's the whole you just said you were going somewhere."

Eric and Hyde glanced at each other, trying to work a way out of the situation, but upon focusing back on Jackie, they saw that she had already set her sights on Fez.  Fez was always the weak link, unable to keep any secret at all.

"Oh, Jackie."  Eric stepped forward and placed a hand on her arm.  His voice was just a little too loud as he tried to draw her attention away from the guilty look plastered on the foreign boy's face.  "Actually, we're just taking… um, we're actually, we're-"

"We're taking Fez home," Hyde broke in, his words forceful and rushed.

Eric snapped his fingers.  "That's right.  We're taking Fez home.  His host parents, well, they need him, so we're taking him home."

"Exactly."  Hyde placed a hand on Fez's shoulder and shoved him toward the door.  "So, we really should be going…  We'll be right back, though.  Really."

Jackie raised one eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest, her high-heeled toe tapping against the cement driveway.  "Why do you have to drive Fez home?  He only lives like three blocks away.  Is it really that big of an emergency?"

Eric cringed slightly at her hard tone.  He really needed to get better at lying.  "Well, Fez… hurt his toe, so…"

Jackie's glare fell back on Eric as his voice trailed away.  She stayed in front of the three, silent and waiting for one of them to speak up.  Eric seemed content avoiding her gaze and Hyde merely glared back at her from behind his dark sunglasses.

"Alright, alright!"  Jackie smirked as Fez broke, ignoring the warning tone of Hyde's voice as he told him to shut up.  "We're going to see Jethro Tull."

The smirk wiped right of Jackie's face.  "What!?!"

"Fez!" Eric groaned, shaking his head at the punch Hyde slammed into the other boy's arm.

"Ey, I'm sorry."  Fez rubbed his arm.  "There is no need to hit, Hyde."

"I can't believe that you guys were going to go to a concert without me."  Jackie stamped her foot. 

"You know, Jackie."  Eric hesitated.  Ever since their drinking binge, he'd had a hard time being too mean to her.  He was sure he would get over it eventually, he just hadn't gotten over that hump yet.  "It was only because… we didn't have any extra tickets."

"Really?"  She stepped forward and snapped the tickets from Hyde's pocket, flipping through them quickly.  "Then why do I count four tickets here?"

"Uh, well."  Eric glanced helplessly over to Hyde.

"Okay, Jackie, it's like this.  We didn't invite you because we didn't want you to go."  He smirked at her, reaching out to grab the tickets back.  Stuffing them in his pocket, he turned to get in the car.

"Well, fine then."  Jackie brushed past Fez to open the back door.  "I don't care if you want me to come or not.  I'm coming."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"Okay, look, Jackie," Fez said, placing a hand on her wrist to pull her attention away from Hyde.  "You can not come because we are going to pick up on the ladies.  We can not pick up on the ladies if we have a lady with us."

"Oh, please, Fez," she scoffed.  "It's not like any ladies would want to be picked up by you guys anyway.  Eric's all mopey over Donna, Steven's all scruffy," Jackie continued, ignoring the eyebrow Hyde raised at her.  "And you're foreign.  So, I'm coming."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Alright, fine," Eric broke in.  "We're not starting this again.  And if we don't leave soon, we're gonna miss the concert altogether."  Turning to Jackie, he spoke to her as firmly as he could.  "But you'd better not be annoying."

"Whatever, Eric.  I'm never annoying."  She settled down into the back seat of the car, smirking up at Hyde.  "So, Jethro Tull, huh?  I like them."

Hyde rolled his eyes and moved to get in the car.  "Yeah?  What?  You think Jethro's hot?"

******************************************

The group had long since left the town limits of Point Place behind as the Vista Cruiser pointed in the direction of Chicago.  The summer sun was set low on the horizon, painting the sky with soft yellows, oranges, and blues.

Fez clapped his hands excitedly and spoke over the soft strains of the radio.  "I am so excited about this concert."

"Yeah, man."  Hyde glanced over the bench seat at his friend.  "I hear Jethro Tull is great live."

"Oh, no.  Who cares about that?  It is the big city women."  He turned to Jackie with a wide, goofy grin.  "I hear that they are easy."

Eric and Hyde both laughed at that.  "That may be, Fez," Eric said.  "But no matter how easy the girl, there is still a cool factor that has to go into it.  You may want to, I don't know, ease off on the clapping, maybe."

Jackie scoffed.  "Oh, please, Eric.  What would you know about the cool factor?"

Eric glanced at her in the rear view mirror.  Her eyebrows were raised high in that pointed manor of hers and it was apparent that she was having no problems bouncing back from their night of bonding.  "Hey!  I'm cool, okay.  I'm like… Joe Cool."  He chuckled and looked over to Hyde for support, but his friend merely pursed his lips and stared back.  "What?  I am!"

Jackie rolled her eyes and shook her head.  She then turned slightly in her seat so that she could better face Fez.  "Listen, Fezzy.  As dorky as the stringbean is, he is right about the clapping thing."  She wiggled her finger at him.  "It doesn't exactly scream heartthrob."

Fez looked down at the hands clasped tightly in his lap.  "Well then, what am I supposed to do to attract the big city ladies?"

"Well," Jackie started.  She held her hands up, posing them in that way that said that she had a lot to say and she was going to be talking for quite some time.  Eric and Hyde both groaned at the gesture.  "All women want to be treated special… even big city, slutty girls."  Fez nodded at her, his brows drawn in concentration.  "We want someone who is sensitive to our needs and to our emotions, and we want someone who is also emotionally available to us.  Someone who is aware of interests and our desires, and is willing to listen when we talk."

"Fez, don't listen to her, man," Hyde broke in, turning in his seat to shot Jackie a look.  "Guys like that have no interest in anything but other guys."  He ignored Jackie's indignant huff and switched back to his friend.  "Women always say that they want that sensitive crap, but in reality, that's just another one of their tricks to try to get us to conform to their ideas on relationships and love.  But you don't want that, man, so the best way to get a chick is to be a real man, not a girly man."

"He's right," Eric piped in.

"Oh, shut up, Eric."  Jackie pushed her hair over her shoulder.  "Again, what would you know, you being the _original_ girly man and everything?"

Eric fell into a sulky silence once again.

"No, Fez."  Jackie brought the situation back to the matter at hand by patting Fez's arm.  "Men tell themselves that women don't really want a sensitive man so that they don't have to open up and so that they can feel better about being such jerks and not listening to us or buying us pretty things.  But women so obviously do want a man like that.  It's the only thing that could explain couples like Joe and Marilyn… or Eric and Donna."

"Hey!"

She ignored Eric, pressing the tip of her finger into Fez's forearm.  "If you really want to get a girl, Fez, you need to listen to me."  She laid a hand on her chest.  "Seeing as I am a girl, I know what I'm talking about.  Steven, on the other hand, doesn't know what he's talking about.  I mean, he's never even really had a girlfriend."

Fez nodded.  "She has a point."

"Yeah, but Fez.  You're not looking for a girlfriend."  Hyde stretched his arm along the back of the seat as he turned toward the two in the back.  "You're just looking for an easy chick to hook up with.  Now," Hyde smirked at Jackie.  "I have plenty of experience picking up easy chicks.  How many have you picked up, Jackie?"

"Oh, and please give specific details and examples, please," Fez piped up, the animation shining back on his face.  

Jackie rolled her eyes and made a face a Hyde before turning back to Fez.  "If all you really want is some slutty girl, than go ahead and follow his advice, but don't come crying to me when you get stuck having sex with some girl who has like… dry hair or fat ankles."

"Who cares about hair or ankles if I am finally having the sex?"  Fez laughed as though she had said the most ridiculous thing in the world.  He clapped his hands excitedly again.

*******************************************

The small concert hall seemed to be packed out as people hurried across the lobby, some gathering food and drinks from the concession stands and others just looking for their seats.  The group stood close together, surveying their surroundings.  

Eric scanned the numbers listed above the doorways, checking for the numbers that matched his tickets.  "Okay…"  He glanced down at the small piece of paper in his hands, and then back down up at the numbers.  "Is it just me or are these tickets impossible to decipher?"

Jackie pushed up beside him, rising up onto her tiptoes to see the ticket over his shoulder.  "It can't be that hard, Eric.  I mean, half of the people here are all stoned out and they can find their seats."

Eric shifted away from her, waving her off with his hand.  He looked up at Hyde to find him searching the crowds.  "What's up, man?"

Hyde turned to them.  "Where'd Fez go?"

They looked around to find that he had indeed disappeared.  Jackie looked over toward the food stands, thinking that he'd probably just gotten distracted by a hot dog or some candy.  Eric was the first to spot him, however.

"There," he said, pointed toward a group of young ladies.  "Looks like our little boy is going all out for big man status."  He smiled at the other two.  The grin faded as Jackie opened her mouth, but he waved her off again before she got the chance to speak.  "Right, right.  You don't have to say anything, Jackie.  I've already got it."

Jackie smiled smugly at him, then turned her gaze toward Fez.  The foreign boy was talking to a group of four blonde high-schoolers, probably sophomores or juniors.  They were all dressed fashionably, and their demeanors spoke of class and popularity.  "See now," she said, tapping Hyde on the arm.  "What we really should have taught Fez was about the idea of leagues, because those girls are way out of his."  She pointed toward a short red-head with glasses just to the right of the group.  "Like her."

Hyde shrugged off her touch, and smirked as one of the girls laughed at what Fez was saying.  "It looks like it's working for him.  Seems like a real man… Oh, crap, man."  The smile slid from his face as said girl reached forward and slapped Fez.

Jackie's hand slapped over her mouth as she burst into giggles.  "You're right, Steven.  It looks like being a real man was a real _hit_."

Eric and Hyde both rolled their eyes at her, but they couldn't stop themselves from joining in on her laughter as Fez came up to them, his expression written in incensed anger.  "What was she so mad about?  It was a compliment!"  He crossed his arms over his chest as he fumed before them.

"I'm sure it was, man."  Hyde slapped him on the shoulder.  

Jackie stepped forward to loop her arm through Fez's.  "But it was obviously lacking sensitivity, Fez, and as a very wise person just told you, that wise person being me, of course, women are looking for sensitivity.  It's key."  Her smile to Hyde was sugary sweet.  "And it pretty much guarantees not getting slapped."

Fez glanced down at her and then glared up at Hyde, who was still laughing at him.  "You bastard."

"Okay, guys, as entertaining as watching Fez get slapped was, we still need to find our seats."  Eric held up his ticket.  "Now, if I could just figure these damned things out."

Hyde snatched the ticket from him, looked over it, and then up toward the row of numbers at the top of the walls.  "We need to go up the stairs, man."

Eric took the ticket back from a Hyde, a bemused look on his face as tried to figure out how Hyde had known that.  After a second, he realized that it was probably just best to leave it alone.  "Alright then.  Let's go."

"Hold on."  Jackie grabbed Eric's arm to stop them from moving.  "I don't want to go all the way up to the top deck.  I did not come all of this way with you losers to sit up in the nosebleed section with the other poor people."  She pointed to the door nearest them.  "I want to sit in there."

The annoyance was clear on Hyde's features.  "We didn't even want you to come, Jackie."

"Oh, you did, too."  She waved him off.  Turning to the other guys, she asked, "Do you guys really want to have to walk all the way up to the top deck just to sit in horrible seats so far away that you can barely hear the music?"

Eric cleared his throat.  "Well, no… but I'm thinking that crappy seats are better than messing with that gigantic security guard over there, so I'm good."  He started walking toward the stairs again, but stopped when Jackie didn't follow.  Her gaze seemed to be trained on the guard and a slow smile was drifting across her lips.  "Come on, Jackie.  Let's go."

"Actually, how about you boys wait here.  I'll be right back."

"No, Jackie…" Hyde's warning went unheeded as Jackie stepped around them and walked toward the guard, her hips sashaying with each step that she took.

The guys watched as she got the big man's attention.  Hyde shook his head irritably and turned to his friends.  "My vote is to just leave her here.  She'll find us eventually."  He grimaced.  "She always finds us."

Fez nodded his agreement.

"Well, normally, I would be all for that, but if Red were to find out that I took Jackie across state lines and then ditched her, I'd be starting my senior year with a small yet fashionable asshat."  Eric crossed his arms and sighed heavily, rolling his eyes as he observed Jackie giggling and tossing her hair over her shoulder.  "So, we wait."

Hyde's eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses, training on the small hand that Jackie had flirtatiously laid on the guard's big beefed-up arm.  The corners of his mouth pulled down in a frown.

"Maybe that's how I should do it."

Fez's voice pulled Hyde back to the situation at hand.  "Do what?"

"Maybe that is how I should go about picking up the easy chicks."  Fez looked at him and batted his eyelashes.  "What do you think?"

Hyde hit him once on the arm before turning back to Jackie.  She was still talking to the guard, but was pointing the three of them out to him.  "This is getting ridiculous, man.  Let's just leave her."

Eric's response was cut short by Jackie sauntering up to them.  She didn't say anything, but instead looped an arm through Fez's arm and the other through Hyde's, pulling them in the direction she had just come from.

Hyde tried to pull away from her, but she had a surprisingly firm grip on his arm.  He looked over his shoulder at Eric, but his friend simply shrugged helplessly, following behind.  

Jackie wove them through the crowd, bringing them closer to the entrance.  "Now boys, I want you to remember that without me, you would be viewing this concert from an entirely different and less better place."  She smiled widely at Hyde.  "See, I do make your lives better."

She pulled them through the door and into the auditorium, releasing Fez's arm long enough to give one last wave toward the guard.  "Thanks again, Dave!"

"Sure thing, sweetie."

The guys followed her in shocked silence, but Eric was the first to recover.  "Are you telling me that you got us seats all the way up here?  Alright!"

"Jackie, I think that you are very pretty," Fez told her with a wide grin.

"Thank you, Fez!"  Jackie stopped next to the first row with open seats and waved the guys inside.  

Hyde was the last to pass, and he merely rolled his eyes at the haughty look she shot him.  "Hey!"  His headed whipped around at the sharp slap she had aimed at his ass.  Her smile simply got wider.

"You're welcome," she told him.

*******************************************

Hyde leaned up against the door to the Vista Cruiser, looking out the window.  The concert had been great, and as it was now past mid-night, they were headed back to Point Place with very little chance of getting in before the house curfew.  

Glancing in the side view mirror, Hyde caught sight of Jackie.  She had fallen asleep soon after they had hit the highway, and her face was pressed up against the window.  Fez had fallen asleep also, and his head was resting against her arm.  He smiled slightly as he thought about how pissed she was going to be when she realized that he had drooled on her sleeve.

"So."  Eric's voice broke into his thoughts.  "That was pretty awesome, huh?"

"Yeah, man."

Eric nodded, keeping his eyes trained on the dark road before them.  "Jethro Tull is awesome live… and it's always fun watching one of you're best friends get slapped."

Hyde looked over at him and chuckled.  "That was great."

Eric glanced in the rear view mirror at the sleeping pair in the back.  "And I can't believe I'm saying this, but it actually wasn't that bad having Jackie with us."

Hyde simply nodded, but opted not to say anything that time.

"Yeah," Eric continued.  "She got us better seats, she paid for the beer, and she certainly fit in with all of the Satan worshippers."

Hyde laughed again.  "That's true."

Eric's fingers drummed against the steering wheel.  "Will wonders never cease," he murmured.

Hyde let the silence drop between them again.  His forehead fell against the window and his eyes went back to the side view mirror, watching Jackie breathe lightly in her sleep.  


	5. Rounding Second

Big and huge thanks go out to Tania and Angel for looking this one over for me.  They are two of the prettiest ladies ever.  I'm hoping to start posting chapters every week to week and a half, so it shouldn't be that much longer before the next one is up. Enjoy! Five:  Rounding Second… 

Jackie hopped down the steps to the basement, her skirt swishing around her legs with each bounce.  For some reason, the day had her feeling extra giddy and excited as if something wonderful was just waiting to happen to her.  That feeling had pulled her out of bed extra early that morning, and although she had taken special care with her appearance, she was still showing up at the Forman's over two hours earlier than she normally did.

It wasn't because she was excited to see Steven, of course, she told herself, running her hands down along her thighs to smooth out her skirt.  It was because she had been up early, she had run out of things to do in her bedroom, and she really didn't feel like being stuck alone in her big empty house.  

Hell, Steven probably wasn't even awake yet.

Jackie nodded to herself and pushed open the door.  She could just watch morning cartoons for a while.  She took that last step into the basement, her heels clacking loudly against the cement floor, and stopped when she saw that the room wasn't as empty as she thought it would be.

"Steven."

Hyde had forfeited his normal seat on the chair, and was slouched down in one corner of the couch watching television.  He looked over at her, apparently not all that surprised that she was there so early, and grunted his hello.

Jackie looked down at her watch.  It was only just past eight.  She didn't think that he got up that early during the school year, let alone during the summer.  She shrugged, but couldn't stop a tiny smile from curving her lips at the idea that maybe _he_ was the one excited to see _her_.  So, Jackie flopped down on the opposite side of the couch from him and crossed one leg over the other.  After a few minutes of nothing, she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye to see that he seemed to be ignoring her.  His attention was still focused firmly on the television.

Well, that didn't seem right.  Jackie crossed her arms over her chest tightly and couldn't help but feel more than a little miffed that he wasn't paying attention to her.  She looked very pretty that morning.  Her hair was perfectly curled and she was wearing a brand new absolutely gorgeous tank top.  Plus, it never took him this long to make a move when they were alone!  And she was there early, so they could do… whatever it was that they did even longer than normal.

Fine, she told herself.  She would just ignore him right back.  She turned her gaze to the television and settled in to pretend to watch the cartoon that she didn't quite recognize.  She was sure that she had seen Michael watch it at some point or another, but couldn't remember what it was called.  It didn't matter anyway, because she was starting to fume.

The cartoon was soon almost over, but Jackie couldn't say what it had been about.  The irritation and frustration in the pit of her stomach continued to fester as the half hour passed, accented by the toe of her shoe tapping tetchily against the edge of the table.  Hyde hadn't moved at all throughout the show, but instead stayed the very picture of cool, all slouched down comfortably at the end of the couch.  

Jackie hadn't much cared about all of Hyde's ideas on Zen and coolness since he taught her about them all that time ago, but as the summer months continued to slowly progress, they were really starting to get on her nerves.

The tapping of her shoe sped up and echoed louder in the large room as her aggravation mounted.  She wanted so much to stand up and blast him for ignoring her, but how could she?  In all of the weeks that they had messed around, neither of them had really put into words what they were doing.  They did it when they did it, but when others were around, there was nothing.  It was simple kissing and a little bit of touching.  

It could have been all imagined for as much as they had acknowledged it.

So, Jackie couldn't yell at him for it, but she sure as hell could just get up and leave.  He would regret later that he had passed up his chance, but he would just have to deal.  Maybe now was just the time to put to an end the incredible wrongness of the situation and then move on with the rest of the summer.  There really was no reason to carry on the charade if he was just going to ignore her like this.

Anyway, she wasn't going to let him squash her wonderful feeling any more than he already had that morning.

Just as she was about to push herself off of the couch to leave, she heard Hyde sigh.  She stopped as he got up and leaned across the table to flip the television off.  He then pulled his sunglasses off and tossed them down onto the table.

The cushions sank underneath his weight as he dropped down beside her, his leg brushing hers and his arm stretching along the back of the couch behind her.  He leaned into her, guiding her to sit all the way back in the seat.

She couldn't believe that after completely ignoring her for a half hour, he honestly thought that he could just sit down and do what he wanted.  What nerve!

It took her a second to recover from the shock, but her hand finally flew up to his chest, stopping him from coming any closer.

Jackie opened her mouth to say something, but again, words failed her.  This fling… or whatever it was, was not about words, and as he stared back at her, his clear blue eyes almost daring her to vocalize this, she realized again that there was nothing she could say.  Anyway, with his hand now tangling in her hair with the fingertips lightly brushing along the nape of her neck, she suddenly didn't really feel like leaving anymore.

She raised one eyebrow high in warning, but the tension in her arm dropped, so he smirked slightly and continued to lean in.  

Hyde's mouth met hers, and once again, Jackie found herself surprised at just how soft his lips were.  She thought that after all the time that they had spent kissing, she would be used to it now, but she wasn't.  

She relaxed beneath him, falling further into the soft surfaces of the couch and the circle of his arm as he shifted to bring his weight more fully over her.  His head tilted and his lips slid against hers, coaxing her to respond.

She opened her mouth just a little and darted out her tongue to dampen her lips.  He reacted immediately, his own lips parting to suck the now moist bottom one into his mouth.  She moaned as she felt his teeth start a little nibble, and she arched up into him.  Her arms went around his torso to slide along the broad plane of his back and try to angle his body more over her.

His hand slipped under her skirt to travel up the length of her thigh to nearly her hip.  From there, he shifted away from her, rising up to his knees and guiding her to reposition herself to lie down underneath him.  The kiss didn't break as she followed his directions, stretching across the length of the couch and then pulling him down until he hovered over her.

She scooted down a bit until her head rested semi-comfortably on the edge of the couch, and then returned her attention to the mouth over hers.  The bristly hairs of his beard brushed against her skin, scratching at it slightly, but despite the redness she was sure it would cause, she focused solely on the tongue that had slipped between her lips and was running along the line of her teeth.  

Jackie's jaw parted and she flipped her tongue over the tip of his, inviting him to come in further.  He complied, and Jackie moaned in the back of her throat as her mouth was filled with the hot leftover flavor of Hyde's morning cup of coffee mixed with the mellow taste that was just him.  Her head canted to the side, her mouth opening wider, and she tried to bring him further into her.

Hyde's hands had settled just under her shoulders, bracing his weight above her, but as Jackie's fingertips danced along the broad plane of his back, she felt him shift slightly to the side.  She arched up into him as his right hand ran down the length of her side and then curved up to settle around her stomach.  

As their make outs had progressed, Jackie had come to learn that, surprisingly, Hyde's touch could be just as soft as his kisses.  His hands were so different from Michael's; stronger, more calloused, but also more patient.  Touching had become one of her very favorite parts of the hot summer mornings.

Hyde's hand ran over the soft cotton of her tank top to trace along the bottom curve of one breast.  Jackie's hands clenched against the fabric of his old t-shirt when one thumb ran up the valley between her breasts and his palm tilted to gently cup one small mound.  Her mouth broke from his and a ragged breath pushed from between her lips.  

"Steven."  The word came out as nearly a whimper.

Hyde quickly recovered her mouth, swallowing her heavy breathing as his thumb stroked across the small pebble of one nipple through two layers of cloth.  His lips formed a seal over hers and he thrust his tongue deep into the crevices of her mouth.  Her chest heaved beneath his hand from the lack of air and the heady filling that was making her heart beat faster and her thinking nearly impossible.

Jackie's hands slipped along his back, clenching bits of material before releasing them and starting the process all over again.  She raised her leg to rub against the length of his thigh.  The rough denim of his jeans scratched against her bare skin as the new angle had her skirt riding up high.  Bracing her foot against the edge of the couch, she nudged off her shoe and then traced down the curve of his calf with the ball of her foot, soaking up his heat through the thick material.

Hyde's lips slipped from hers, dragging down the curve of her jaw at the same time that his hand left her breast, dragging down the flat of her stomach.  She groaned in protest, but quickly swallowed it when his mouth latched onto her earlobe and his fingers pulled the hem of her top free from the waist of her skirt, the warm tips now brushing against her bare skin.

A warning signal went off in the back of her brain as the heat of his hand steeped into her, spreading out from it's spot on her stomach across her torso.  This was the first time he had really gone for touching under the clothes, and for reasons more than just someone could come down at any moment, she wasn't sure that they should go any further.  But as the pad of his thumb traced along the line of her lowest rib, those reasons faded into some distant memory.

Jackie brushed her cheek against his, feeling his beard scrape against her sensitive skin.  His teeth worked around her earlobe, pulling at it lightly before releasing it to lick across the patch of skin just underneath.  She shivered, arched up into him, and stretched her neck further, giving him all the access that he would want.

As his mouth continued its trail along the line of her neck, his hand traced ever widening circles over her torso until it came to rest over the underside of one breast.  His fingers curved around the swell and his palm shifted until it completely covered one mound.  She could feel the warm tips of his fingers tracing down the edge of her bra, along the inner curve of her breast, and into the small valley between them.  His palm smoothed from one crest over to the other before flexing his hand and squeezing her softly.

Jackie pressed herself up into him, buried her face into the arc of his neck, and dug her nails into his back.  Her mouth latched onto his pulse point, visible just below the line of his beard and sucked a little bit harder than she knew she should have.  The heat in the pit of her stomach spiraled outward, and she knew for certain that this was that wonderful feeling that had inspired her to show up at the Forman's that couple of hours earlier than she normally did.

Hyde's hand released her, and Jackie was ready to groan in protest before the warning sirens went off again.  His fingers smoothed over her ribcage and around to her back, and a second later, she could feel his thumb flick once over the clasp of her bra.

Jackie braced her hands against his chest and pushed him back a bit.  "What are you doing?" she asked, the breathlessness of her voice dampening the control she was trying to convey.

His hand froze on her back as Hyde pulled away from her neck and glared down at her.  "What do you think I'm doing?"

Jackie's eyes narrowed, and she was pissed that he was able to keep his voice so even.  Her fingers tapped against his collarbone, and she raised her eyebrow in warning.  "Steven, I don't really think that-"

"Jackie," he interrupted, pushing into her palms and lowering his mouth back to the base of her neck.  "Why do you always insist on talking?"

The tension in her arms dropped as he sucked lightly at the juncture between her neck and shoulder and his hand on her back slipped away from the clasp.  Her hands slid around his shoulders, one hand burying in his short curly hair and the other sliding down to explore his body.

Hyde traveled back up the curvature of her neck to lick along the line of her jaw.  He kissed her chin once before moving to her mouth and pulling her bottom lip between his teeth.  Jackie could feel his warm breath cool the damp trail he had left on her skin.  Her tongue darted out to flick at the tip of his lip.  Their kiss deepened when Jackie pushed past Hyde's lips and into his mouth.  He moaned as she licked the roof of his mouth and then ran her tongue along the line just behind his teeth.  

The wandering hand beneath Jackie's shirt moved again, tracing the span of her ribcage and the jut of her backbone.  The fingers skimmed the outline of her bra before pushing underneath it to caress the bare skin of her back.  Jackie bit lightly at his lip when she felt his hand drift toward the middle, but he paid her no mind, drumming his fingers against the bumps of her spine.

She felt him flick at the clasp once, and then twice, and her eyes shot open as it released and came undone.

Hyde pulled back an inch to give her a cocky smirk, and Jackie couldn't help her lips from curving upward slightly.  He was really good at that.

But the smugness dropped immediately off his face at the sound of footsteps on the stairs just outside.  His eyes grew wide and he jumped off of her, grabbing his glasses off the table, and turning the TV back on in one quick motion.  He settled down into his chair, crossing one leg lazily over the other.

Jackie struggled into a sitting position, trying to straighten her skirt and fix her clasp before the door opened.  She pulled herself to the far end of the couch, smoothing her skirt out over her legs, but was unable to redo the bra before Fez burst into the basement.

"Good morning!"  His smile was bright and wide as he regarded them.  "Ah, Jackie.  I didn't know that you got here this early."

Jackie stared at him wide-eyed.  She could only imagine what she looked like, hair mussed, lipstick smudged, skirt riding over her knee.  And her bra.  She quickly crossed her arms tightly over her chest.  If any of the guys were to notice that her bra was not done right, it would be Fez.  He had more than a little obsession with boobs.

"Ah…" She tried to come up with something intelligent to say, but could only draw a blank.

Thankfully, Fez was of the short attention type, and he turned toward the TV.  "Oh, goodie.  I got here just in time for Matchgame.  I love the Matchgame."

As Fez was distracted by the pull of Gene Rayburn's next question, Jackie swiped her mouth with the back of her hand, trying to get rid of any excess lipstick.  She shot a glance at Hyde, and was enraged when she saw him looking back, trying to hold in his laughter at her predicament.

"Yeah, so does Jackie," he said in that deadpan way of his.  "Look at how excited she is about it."

Jackie's eyes went wide again as her arms snapped back down to cover her chest and she did her best to look natural.  She smiled tightly at Fez.

"Jackie, you don't look very excited at all.  You look kind of angry."

She opened her mouth to respond, but Hyde spoke up once again.  "Yeah, that's just how excited looks on Jackie."

There was no mistaking the glare that she shot him.  "Shut up, Steven," she told him through gritted teeth.

Fez cocked his head at the two, his eyebrows drawn in as though he were trying to figure something out.  Finally he shrugged and turned back to the television.  "How can you be angry during Matchgame?  It is so funny.  Plus, there is Richard Dawson."  He pointed at the man on the screen and turned to his friends, his expression thoughtful.  "I'd let him kiss me."

The staredown between Jackie and Hyde broke as they both looked blankly at Fez.

"What?  He's just so debonair."

After a second, Jackie just rolled her eyes and put her attention back on the television, trying to ignore the smirk that would not fall from Hyde's lips.  She crossed one leg over the other and pulled her arms tighter around her torso.

"Are you sure you're okay, Jackie?" Fez asked.  

"Yes."  She answered without looking away from the large woman on the screen who seemed to be taking forever to spit out an answer.

"No, I think you're right, Fez."  Hyde shifted in his chair so that he was facing more toward Jackie.  "Something really does seem _off_ about Jackie today."

Her head whipped around.  "Nothing is off!"  She tried to calm her tone and looked to Fez.  "I'm fine.  I'm just tired of having to deal with this _jackass_ all summer."

"Well then."  Hyde raised an eyebrow from behind his sunglasses.  "You could always leave."

Jackie let the moment pass, mulling over ways to cause him certain death.  She knew that he knew that if she were to stand, then the outline of her undone bra would be more than obvious through her tank top.  "I'm fine," she bit out.

The room dropped into silence, broken only by the scratchy laugh of Brett Somers coming from the television set, as Jackie continued to try and avoid anyone's gaze and Hyde continued to smile at her.

"What is going on?" Fez finally asked.  When neither of them answered, the pitch of his voice rose slightly in anger.  He always got that way when he knew they were leaving him out of the loop.  "Tell me what is going on!"

"Nothing's going on with me."  Hyde shrugged.  "Is anything going on with you, Jackie?"

"_No._"

Fez stared hard at them, refusing to let it drop.  "You two have a secret, and I want to know what it is.  I can keep a secret, you know."

"You cannot keep a secret."  Jackie threw him a quick look.  "But there's nothing to be kept secret anyway, so everybody shut up and watch Matchgame."  She pointed to the TV.  "Look, Fez. Nipsey Russell is on."

But the foreign boy could not be distracted.  "You guys are lying!"  

"Fez, why would we lie to you?  I can't think of a reason, can you, Jackie?"  Hyde put on his best innocent face.

Jackie gazed at him incredulously.  She couldn't believe that he was trying to get them caught, and all because he thought her bra was funny.  What a jerk!  

"Fine, Fez.  Eric asked us not to tell you, but I just wouldn't feel right about it if I didn't."  Jackie shifted her arms on her chest.  "Eric is going to the mall this morning, but he didn't want us to tell you.  Considering his fashion sense, though, I really feel like it's the right thing that you know.  He really can't be trusted alone with that sort of thing."

Fez looked toward Hyde for confirmation, and then scrambled from his chair.  "I can't believe he would go without me!" he cried, pounding up the stairs and out of the basement.  

As soon as the sound of the kitchen door slamming shut echoed through the room, Hyde broke out into laughter.  He doubled over at the waist, leaning forward into his chair, and pointing at her.

"You, jerk!" she exclaimed, standing up from the couch.  She reached up into the back of her shirt, arched her back, and tried to pull the two sides together.  "You almost got us caught!"

"Oh come on."  Hyde stood and turned the television off before walking over to her.    "It was Fez.  There was no way he was going to catch onto that."

She removed one hand from her shirt and jabbed a finger into his chest.  "You, Steven Hyde, are a jerk!"  She then folded her arm back into her shirt to struggle with the bra, pushing her chest out as her back arched again.

Hyde stepped closer, sliding his hands around her ribcage and dropping a light kiss on her forehead.  "Whatever."

The clasp snapped together, and with a smirk of satisfaction, Jackie pushed him back a step.  She dropped down onto the couch with a light "Hmphf."

Hyde laughed and sat down beside her.  His fingers circled her wrist as he began to pull her over toward him despite her slight resistance.  "It doesn't matter now because he's gone, and he's not gonna give up until Forman takes him to the mall."  He pulled her legs onto his lap and leaned into her.  His mouth settled on her neck, sprinkling a trail of kisses up to her cheek.

She let herself relax into him, and his smell, and the scratch of his beard.  "Fine, but you better keep your hands to yourself this time."

Jackie felt his chuckle brush across her cheek as he brought his mouth to hers.  "Whatever you say."

His hands slid around to her back, and before she knew it, they were back up her shirt.  His weight shifted forward, pushing her to lie back down, and with one flip of his thumb and forefinger, the bra clasp came undone again.

Hyde pulled back once more to give her that self-assured smirk, and she couldn't stop herself from laughing against his lips as her hands settled over his back and his warm fingers stroked against her bare skin.


End file.
